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Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. Set in the 24th century from the year 2371 through 2378, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Voyager_%28Star_Trek%29 USS Voyager], which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light-years from Earth while pursuing a renegade Maquis ship.[1] Both ships' crews merge aboard Voyager to make the estimated 75-year journey home.[2] The show was created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor and is the fourth incarnation of Star Trek, which began with the 1960s series Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry. It was produced for seven seasons, from 1995 to 2001, and is the only Star Trek series with a female captain, Kathryn Janeway, as a lead character. Voyager aired on UPN and was the network's second longest-running series. Production Voyager was produced to launch UPN, a television network planned by Paramount. This was the second time that Paramount had considered launching a network anchored by a Star Trek show: the studio planned to launch a network showcasing Star Trek: Phase II in 1977. Initial work on Voyager started in 1993, and seeds for the show's backstory, including the development of the Maquis, were placed in several Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes. Voyager was shot on the stages The Next Generation had used and the pilot, "Caretaker", was shot in September 1994. Around that time, Paramount was sold to Viacom, making Voyager the first Star Trek TV series to premiere after the sale concluded. Voyager was also the first Star Trek TV show to eliminate the use of models for exterior space shots and exclusively use computer-generated imagery (CGI) instead. Other television shows such as seaQuest DSV and Babylon 5 had previously used CGI exclusively to avoid the huge expense of models, but the Star Trek television department continued using models, because they felt models provided better realism. Amblin Imaging won an Emmy for the opening CGI title visuals, but the weekly episode exteriors were captured using hand-built miniatures of the Voyager, shuttlecraft, and other ships. That changed when Star Trek: Voyager went fully CGI for certain types of shots midway through Season 3 (late 1996).[3] Paramount obtained an exclusive contract with Foundation Imaging, the studio responsible for special effects during Babylon 5's first three seasons. Season 3's "The Swarm" was the first episode to use Foundation's effects exclusively. Deep Space Nine started using Foundation Imaging in conjunction with Digital Muse one year later (season 6). In its later seasons, Voyager featured visual effects from Foundation and Digital Muse. Plot overview See also: List of Star Trek: Voyager episodesIn the pilot episode, "Caretaker", USS Voyager departs station Deep Space Nine on a mission into the treacherous Badlands to find a missing ship piloted by a team of Maquis rebels, which the Vulcan Lt. Tuvok, Voyager's security officer, has secretly infiltrated. Suddenly, the starship is enveloped by a powerful energy wave, which ends up damaging the ship, killing several of its crew, and stranding the ship on the far side of the galaxy, more than 70,000 light-years from Earth. Voyager eventually finds the Maquis ship, and the two crews reluctantly agree they must join forces in order to survive their long journey home. Chakotay, leader of the Maquis group, becomes first officer. B'Elanna Torres, a half-human/half-Klingon Maquis, becomes chief engineer. Tom Paris, whom Janeway released from a Federation prison to help her find the Maquis ship, is made Voyager's helm officer. Due to the deaths of the ship's entire medical staff, The Doctor, an Emergency Medical Hologram designed for short-term use only, is employed as the Chief Medical Officer. Neelix, a Talaxian scavenger, and Kes, a young Ocampan, natives of the Delta Quadrant, are welcomed aboard as the ship's chef/morale officer, and The Doctor's medical assistant respectively.[4] Due to the great distance from Federation space, the Delta Quadrant is unexplored and Voyager truly is going where no man has gone before. As the ship sets out on its projected 75-year journey home, the crew passes through regions belonging to various species indigenous to the Delta Quadrant, such as the barbaric and belligerent Kazon; the organ-harvesting, disease-ravaged Vidiians; the nomadic hunter-race the Hirogen; the fearsome, scorpion-like Species 8472 from a fluid-space realm; and most notably the Borg, as Voyager has to move through large areas of Borg-controlled space in later seasons. They also encounter perilous natural phenomena such as a nebulous area called the Nekrit Expanse (episode 5x01), a large area of empty space called the Void (episode 7x15), wormholes, dangerous nebulae, and other anomalies. However, Voyager does not always deal with the unknown. It is the second Star Trek series to feature Q on a recurring basis (Q made only one appearance on Deep Space Nine). Also, Starfleet Command learns of Voyager's survival when the ship discovers an ancient interstellar communications network that the crew is able to tap into. Starfleet develops a means to establish regular audiovisual and data contact with the ship using this network, thanks to the efforts of Reginald Barclay (who was featured more prominently on The Next Generation). In the show's fourth season, Kes is replaced on the ship by Seven of Nine, a Borg drone (known colloquially as Seven), who was assimilated as a six-year-old Human girl but liberated from the collective by the Voyager crew. Seven begins to regain her humanity as the series progresses, thanks to ongoing efforts by Captain Janeway to show her that the perfection the Borg seek is not compatible with the imperfection of humanity; however emotions such as love and care are more important to happiness. The Doctor also becomes more human-like, thanks in part to a mobile holo-emitter the crew obtains in the third season, which allows the Doctor to roam freely whereas he was previously confined to the sickbay. He starts to discover his love for music and art, which he demonstrates in the episode Virtuoso. In the sixth season, the crew discovers a group of adolescent aliens assimilated by the Borg, but prematurely released from their maturation chambers due to a malfunction on their Borg cube. As he did with Seven of Nine, The Doctor re-humanized the children; three of them eventually find a new adoptive home while the fourth, Icheb, chooses to stay aboard Voyager. Life for the Voyager crew continued to change over their seven-year journey. Traitors (Seska and Jonas) were uncovered in the early months; loyal crew members were lost late in the journey; and other wayward Starfleet officers were integrated into the crew. During the second season, the first child was born aboard the ship to Ensign Samantha Wildman; as she grew up, Naomi Wildman would become great friends with her godfather, Neelix. Early in the seventh season, Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres married after a long courtship, and Torres would give birth to their child in the series finale. Late in the seventh season, the ship finds a colony of Talaxians on a makeshift settlement in an asteroid field, and Neelix chooses to bid Voyager farewell and live once again amongst his people. Over the course of the series, the crew of Voyager find a number of ways to shorten their journey by a number of decades, thanks to shortcuts (in the episodes "Night", "Q2"), technology boosts ("The Voyager Conspiracy", "Dark Frontier", "Timeless", "Hope and Fear"), subspace corridors ("Dragon's Teeth"), and a mind-powered push from a powerful former shipmate ("The Gift"). There were also other transportation and time travel opportunities the crew were not able to use ("Prime Factors", "Future's End"). All these efforts shorten their journey from 75 years to 23 years, however one final effort (involving time travel) brings them home after 7 years as shown in the series finale, "Endgame". Cast Notable guest appearances *Gary Graham, who portrayed Ambassador Soval on Star Trek: Enterprise, played Ocampan community leader Tanis in the season 2 episode "Cold Fire". *John Rhys-Davies plays Leonardo da Vinci in Captain Janeway’s holodeck program. He appeared in "Concerning Flight" and "Scorpion: Part I". *Ray Walston, who appeared as Starfleet Academy groundskeeper Boothby in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The First Duty, reprised the role in the episodes "In the Flesh" and "The Fight". *King Abdullah II of Jordan played an Unnamed ensign (science officer) in the episode "Investigations". *Comedian Andy Dick played the Emergency Medical Hologram Mark 2 on the USS Prometheus in "Message in a Bottle". *Comedian Scott Thompson played the alien Tomin in "Someone to Watch Over Me". *Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson portrayed the Pendari Champion when Seven of Nine and Tuvok were captured and forced to play in the game, in the episode "Tsunkatse". *Kurtwood Smith played Annorax, a Krenim who was determined to restore his original timeline, in "Year of Hell" parts 1 and 2. *John Savage played Captain Rudy Ransom of the USS Equinox, another Federation Starship that Voyager encountered in the Delta Quadrant, in "Equinox" parts 1 and 2. *Comedian Sarah Silverman appeared as Rain Robinson, a young astronomer who finds Voyager in orbit of 20th Century Earth, in "Future's End" parts 1 and 2. *Ed Begley Jr. portrayed Henry Starling, an unscrupulous 20th Century industrialist, also in "Future's End" parts 1 and 2. *Musician Tom Morello played Crewman Mitchell, seen when Captain Janeway asks him for directions on Deck 15, in "Good Shepherd". *Sharon Lawrence played the famous aviator Amelia Earhart in the episode "The 37's". *David Graf appeared as Fred Noonan, Amelia Earhart's navigator, also in "The 37's". *Michael McKean plays a maniacal "Clown" character in a simulation in which the crew's minds are held hostage in the episode "The Thaw". *Joel Grey played Caylem, a delusional widower who believes Capt. Janeway is his daughter, in "Resistance". *Jason Alexander played Kurros, the spokesperson for a group of alien scholars, in "Think Tank". *Virginia Madsen played Kellin, a Ramuran tracer, in "Unforgettable". *Titus Welliver played Lieutenant Maxwell Burke in "Equinox" parts 1 and 2. Connections with other Star Trek incarnations Characters and races As with all other Star Trek series, the original Star Trek's Vulcans, Klingons and Romulans appear in Star Trek: Voyager.[5] Voyager saw appearances by several races who initially appear in The Next Generation: the Q, the Borg, Cardassians, Bajorans, Betazoids, and Ferengi, along with Deep Space Nine's Jem'Hadar (via hologram), as well as the Maquis resistance movement, previously established in episodes of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.[5] One notable connection between Voyager and The Next Generation appears regarding a wormhole and the Ferengi. In The Next Generation season 3 episode "The Price", bidding takes place for rights to a wormhole. The Ferengi send a delegation to the bidding. When the Enterprise and Ferengi vessel each send shuttles into the wormhole, they appear in the Delta Quadrant, where the Ferengi shuttle becomes trapped. In the Voyager season 3 episode "False Profits", the Ferengi who were trapped have since landed on a nearby planet, and begun exploiting the inhabitants for profit. Actors from other Star Trek series or films appearing on Voyager *Majel Barrett voices the ship's computer, having performed the same role in previous Star Trek series.[5] *Dwight Schultz played Reginald Barclay on Star Trek: The Next Generation and in the film Star Trek: First Contact. He appeared in the following Voyager episodes: "Projections", "Pathfinder", "Life Line", "Inside Man", "Author, Author", and "Endgame" *John de Lancie plays the mischievous Q, who also annoyed Captain Picard on the Enterprise. He appeared in "Death Wish", "The Q and the Grey", and "Q2". *Marina Sirtis, as Counselor Deanna Troi from The Next Generation, appears in "Pathfinder", "Life Line", and "Inside Man". *Jonathan Frakes played Commander William Riker from The Next Generation, appearing in "Death Wish". *LeVar Burton, who played Geordi La Forge on The Next Generation, appeared as Captain LaForge of the USS Challenger in an alternate future in the episode "Timeless". *Armin Shimerman, who portrayed Quark on Deep Space 9, appeared in the pilot "Caretaker", continuing a tradition where an existing Star Trek series spawns a spinoff – in this case, Deep Space Nine to Voyager. *Original Series cast member George Takei reprised his role as Captain Hikaru Sulu of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Excelsior_%28Star_Trek%29 USS Excelsior] from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He appeared in Star Trek’s 30th anniversary commemorative episode, "Flashback". *Dan Shor, who appeared as the Ferengi Dr. Arridor in The Next Generation episode "The Price", reprised the role in the follow-up episode "False Profits", having become stranded in the Delta Quadrant at the end of the former episode. *The Borg Queen, the antagonist from Star Trek: First Contact, makes several appearances in Voyager. Susanna Thompson played the role in the episodes "Unimatrix Zero" and "Dark Frontier"; however, Alice Krige, who played the character in First Contact, reprised the role for the series finale. *Aron Eisenberg (Nog of Deep Space Nine) appeared in "Initiations" as a Kazon adolescent named Kar. *Gwynyth Walsh (B'Etor of The Next Generation and Generations) appeared in "Random Thoughts" as Chief Examiner Nimira. *Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun and Brunt of Deep Space Nine and Shran of Enterprise) appeared in "Tsunkatse" as Norcadian Penk. *J.G. Hertzler (Martok of Deep Space Nine and Klingon advocate Kolos in the Enterprise episode: "Judgement") appeared in "Tsunkatse" as an unnamed Hirogen. *Suzie Plakson, who portrayed Dr. Selar in the TNG episode "The Schizoid Man" as well as K'Ehleyr, Worf's mate in "The Emissary" and "Reunion", appeared as the female Q in the episode "The Q and the Grey". *Kurtwood Smith, who plays Annorax in Year of Hell appears in Star Trek: Deep Space 9 episode "Things Past" as a Cardassian, Thrax. Prior to this, he also appeared in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country as the President of the Federation. *Leonard Crofoot, who appears in "Virtuoso" as a Qomar spectator,[6] previously appeared as Trent in the TNG episode "Angel One". Actors from Voyager appearing on other Star Trek series or films *Robert Duncan McNeill (Paris) appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The First Duty" as Starfleet cadet Nicolas Locarno. (The character of Tom Paris was based on Locarno, but he was felt to be 'beyond redemption' for his actions during "The First Duty"; Paramount would also have been obliged by contract to pay royalties to the author of "The First Duty" for the use of the name "Nick Locarno" in every episode).[citation needed] *Tim Russ (Tuvok) appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Starship Mine", the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes "Invasive Procedures" and "Through the Looking Glass" (as Mirror Tuvok), and the film Star Trek: Generations, as various characters. *Robert Picardo (the Doctor) guest-starred in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" as Dr. Lewis Zimmerman and an EMH Mark I, and in the film Star Trek: First Contact as the Enterprise-E's EMH. *Ethan Phillips (Neelix) was featured in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Ménage à Troi" as the Ferengi Farek, the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Acquisition" as the Ferengi pirate Ulis, and in Star Trek: First Contact as an unnamed Maitre d' on the holodeck. *Kate Mulgrew appears as Kathryn Janeway, promoted to vice admiral, in the film Star Trek Nemesis. Behind-the-scenes connections *Robert Duncan McNeill (Paris) and Roxann Dawson (Torres) have also directed episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise. *Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, and Andrew Robinson (Garak of Deep Space Nine) all directed episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. *The sets used for USS Voyager were re-used for the Deep Space Nine episode "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" for its sister ship USS Bellerophon (NCC-74705), both of which are [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrepid_class_starship Intrepid-class starships]. The sickbay set of USS Voyager was also used as the Enterprise-E's sickbay in the films Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection. Additionally, Voyager's ready room and the engineering set were also used as rooms aboard the Enterprise-E in Insurrection. Broadcast History NOTE: The most frequent time slot for the series is in bold text. *Monday at 8:00-9:00 PM on UPN: January 16, 1995—May 20, 1996 *'Wednesday at 9:00-10:00 PM on UPN: September 4, 1996—October 29, 1997; April 8, 1998—May 23, 2001' *Wednesday at 8:00-9:00 PM on UPN: November 5, 1997—March 4, 1998 Novels and novelizations Main article: List of Star Trek: Voyager novelsA total of 22 numbered books were released during the series' original run from 1995 to 2001. They include novelizations of the first episode, Caretaker, The Escape, Violations, Ragnarok and novelizations of the episodes Flashback, Day of Honor, Equinox and Endgame. There are also an amount of so called "unnumbered books", which are still part of the series, though not part of the official release. These novels all consist of episode novelizations except for Caretaker, Mosaic (a biography of Captain Kathryn Janeway), Pathways (a novel in which the biography of various crewmembers, including all of the senior staff is given); and The Nanotech War, a novel released in 2002, one year after the series' finale. Book relaunch A series of novels focusing on the continuing adventures of Voyager following the TV series finale was implemented in 2003, much as Pocket Books did with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Deep_Space_Nine_relaunch Deep Space Nine relaunch novel series], which features stories placed after the finale of that show. In the relaunch, several characters are reassigned while others are promoted but stay aboard Voyager These changes include Janeway's promotion to admiral, Chakotay becoming captain of Voyager, Tuvok leaving the ship to serve as First Officer under William Riker, and Tom Paris' promotion to First Officer. The series also introduces several new characters. The series began with Homecoming and The Farther Shore in 2003, a direct sequel to the show's finale, Endgame. These were followed in 2004 by Spirit Walk: Old Wounds and Spirit Walk: Enemy of My Enemy. Under the direction of a new author, 2009 brought forth two more additions to the series: Full Circle and Unworthy . In 2011 another book by the same author called Children of the Storm was released. Other novels – some set during the relaunch period, others during the show's TV run—have been published. References #'^' "Caretaker, Part 1". StarTrek.com. Retrieved December 19, 2009. #'^' Star Trek: Voyager [TV series synopsis]. Retrieved April 4, 2007. #'^' "DVD Reviews – Star Trek Voyager Season 3". Thelogbook.com. June 10, 2009. Retrieved December 19, 2009. #'^' "Caretaker (episode) - Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki". Memory-alpha.org. December 5, 1994. Retrieved December 11, 2011. #^ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Voyager#cite_ref-Encyc_4-0 a''] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Voyager#cite_ref-Encyc_4-1 ''b] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Voyager#cite_ref-Encyc_4-2 c] Okuda, Mike and Denise Okuda, with Debbie Mirek (1999). The Star Trek Encyclopedia. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-53609-5. #'^' "Full cast and crew for "Star Trek: Voyager" – Virtuoso". Virtuoso. IMDB. Retrieved October 6, 2011. External links *[http://www.startrek.com/page/star-trek-voyager Star Trek: Voyager] at StarTrek.com *[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112178/ Star Trek: Voyager] at the Internet Movie Database *[http://www.tv.com/show/274/summary.html Star Trek: Voyager] at TV.com *[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Voyager Star Trek: Voyager] at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki) *[http://tviv.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Voyager Star Trek: Voyager] article at The TV IV, a compendium of television knowledge. 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